1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manipulation-monitoring device that performs a control operation and monitoring of a plant through a manipulation-monitoring-page displayed based on data collected from a control device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an increase in page-display rate of the manipulation-monitoring device.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-023789, filed Feb. 5, 2010, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
There has been a production control system called a distributed-control-system, which will hereinafter be referred to as a DCS. The DCS performs a control operation or monitoring of a control target, such as a plant or a purification plant, using a display device.
The DCS displays various pieces of information relating to the control operation or monitoring of a plant on a screen of the display device. When a problem occurs in the plant, it is expressed as an alarm and reported to an operator. Then, the operator can perform issue of an appropriate instruction and appropriate handling.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a DCS in accordance with a related art. The DCS includes a scheduling device 1, a manipulation-monitoring device 2, control devices 31, 32 and 33, and a plant 4. The control devices 31, 32 and 33 may be disposed in the plant 4 or connected to the plant 4. The scheduling device 1 and the manipulation-monitoring device 2 are connected to each other via a communication bus BS1. The manipulation-monitoring device 2 and the control devices 31, 32 and 33 are connected to each other via a communication bus BS2. The scheduling device 1 makes a schedule, e.g., of a batch process, and transmits schedule information to the manipulation-monitoring device 2 via the communication bus BS1.
Based on the schedule information transmitted from the scheduling device 1, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 designs a scheme for executing the batch process and starts the batch process.
The control devices 31, 32 and 33 are driven by the manipulation-monitoring device 2 via the communication bus BS2 and control the plant 4 to execute the batch process according to the scheme.
The manipulation-monitoring device 2 corresponds to a terminal of a production control system. The manipulation-monitoring device 2 includes a manipulation-monitoring-console. The manipulation-monitoring-console can display a page according to a monitoring range or a monitoring purpose, which is hereinafter referred to as a manipulation-monitoring-page. An operator who performs manipulation-monitoring of a plant displays the manipulation-monitoring-page and performs operation using the manipulation-monitoring device 2.
The manipulation-monitoring-page displayed by the manipulation-monitoring device 2 may consist of a plurality of pages. For example, the plurality of pages include a page for manipulating and monitoring an overall process, a page for manipulating and monitoring a part, which may be referred to as a first process and a second process, of a process that can be randomly selected by a user, and so on.
When a page-display-request is input from a user, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 collects information, such as measurement data, control data, and process data, required for display from the control devices 31, 32 and 33. The manipulation-monitoring device 2 displays a manipulation-monitoring-page when the information is collected.
To be specific, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 displays an arrangement diagram of a field control network established in a plant, progress states of respective processes, and the like on the manipulation-monitoring-page based on the data collected from the control devices 31, 32 and 33.
The manipulation-monitoring device 2 stores page definition information for displaying a page in a predetermined display form in response to data of the control devices 31, 32 and 33 in a storage unit, which is not illustrated in the figures, in advance.
The manipulation-monitoring device 2 displays the manipulation-monitoring-page based on the page definition information and the data collected from the control devices 31, 32 and 33.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating operation of the manipulation-monitoring device of FIG. 5. Operation of the manipulation-monitoring device until a manipulation-monitoring-page is displayed is illustrated according to time.
When page-display-request-information is input by a user through an input unit, which is not illustrated in the figures, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 collects data from the control devices 31, 32 and 33 via the communication bus BS2 between a time T0 and a time T1.
At the time T1, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 has collected all information, such as measurement data, control data, and process data, required for display from the control devices 31, 32 and 33. At this time, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 displays an arrangement diagram of a field control network established in the plant 4 and progress states of respective processes on the manipulation-monitoring-page based on the data collected from the control devices 31, 32 and 33 and the page definition information.
At the time T2, when end-request-information is input by a user via the input unit, the manipulation-monitoring device 2 finishes displaying page.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H9-128003 discloses the manipulation-monitoring device 2 described above.
When the manipulation-monitoring device 2 displays a manipulation-monitoring-page which is allocated many pieces of process data, e.g., a manipulation-monitoring-page in which many pieces of data required to display an operating state of a process are present, it takes too much time in reading a large amount of page-definition-information. Also, it takes too much time in displaying the page based on a large amount of process data. Furthermore, since the control devices 31 32 and 33, which are a plurality of data sources, need to be accessed, it takes much time to acquire a large amount of data and collect information. For these reasons, it takes several seconds to display the page.
As for a manipulation-monitoring device in accordance with the related art, a page cannot be manipulated until page-display is completed after a display-request is received. Thus, it takes much time to see a plurality of pages.
When the manipulation-monitoring device in accordance with the related art switches a page by a page turning manipulation, and the like, communication with a control device, which is caused in collecting data required for displaying a page, occurs to display every page, and thus a load of the control device increases.